It used to be thought there were three divisions in the Premier League: the elite four, a handful of clubs with sufficient financial clout to target Uefa Cup qualification, and the rest, for whom all that mattered was avoiding relegation. Now it seems there may be only two. Take Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool out of the equation and what remains is a single amorphous mass, from which one team or another periodically emerges on the back of a couple of good results before being dragged back into the mix.

Bolton Wanderers are a case in point. Two games ago they were in the bottom three, their manager the subject of sustained verbal abuse. After beating Manchester City at home last week and following it with a win that, for all the hard work and commitment of their outfielders, owed a huge amount to inspired goalkeeping by Jussi Jaaskelainen they find themselves in the top half.

"I've never known it that you can get two results and absolutely sail up the table - Everton have done it, Middlesbrough did it and now we've done it," said Gary Megson, who two weeks ago at Spurs endured a vituperative barrage of insults. "But the object is still to do what we were doing six days ago, which is trying to get ourselves away from the bottom. There's probably 14 teams trying to do that, so we will still be looking over our shoulders."

He reckoned to have heard more personal invective on Saturday but, if so, it was not obvious. There was the odd indirect jibe, such as demanding a wave from the former Bolton player, coach and assistant manager Phil Brown, but for the most part the fans contented themselves with lauding Jaaskelainen, particularly during a final half-hour in which the Finn pulled off a string of saves, including two doubles as brave as they were agile.

"Hopefully I can keep the level I am playing all the way through the season," said the 33-year-old, who joined Bolton in 1997. This was his 401st appearance for the club and last summer he signed a four-year contract. "Hull only got those chances towards the end. I thought we played better and deserved to be 1-0 up."

Brown, while disappointed, was not unduly concerned that Hull have now lost three in a row, after Jaaskelainen's heroics prevented his team recovering from the second-half volley Matt Taylor threaded through a crowd. "This is the first time we've lost a game we thought we could have got something from and we played well enough to win, let alone draw," Brown said.